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Saturday, February 16, 2008

With our very first look at Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverinerevealed on Wednesday, some new buzz has arrived, including two new casting updates and an interesting plot point regarding another Marvel character. Speculation on who might play the characters of the young William Stryker as well as Silver Fox have been circulating for months, but new confirmation arrives today that Danny Huston will play Stryker and Lynn Collins will play Silver Fox. On top of that, another report points out that the Marvel character The Blob will have an appearance in the movie as well.

In regards to the film's two casting updates, JoBlo brings us the first update on William Stryker. Initially the character was rumored to be played by Liev Schreiber, but that rumor has since changed. Liev Schreiber is still cast in the movie as Sabretooth instead (read about that here), and Danny Huston will play William Stryker. Huston has been in quite a few movies recently, including 30 Days of Night, The Number 23, Children of Men, and Marie Antoinette. Quite an interesting casting choice and it's not one I'm particularly happy with. I'm not too fond of Huston and his physical appearance doesn't seem to fit that of the role. Brian Cox played Stryker in the original X-Men films.

As for Silver Fox, IESB reports that the beautiful Lynn Collins has been cast. Early rumors pointed towards Maggie Q and Michelle Monaghan, but those have since fallen through as well. The 28-year-old actress was previously seen in The Number 23, The Lake House, and 13 Going on 30.

In the X-Men universe presented in the films, William Stryker is a military scientist who has a hatred for the mutant race that stems from his mutant son Jason. Stryker has connection to Wolverine as well, as he was involved in the Weapon X program that turned Wolverine into the "weapon" that he is today. Silver Fox was also a victim of the Weapon X project and eventually became Wolverine's lover in the comics. She also has a healing ability like Wolverine, but does not have an adamantium skeleton. Silver Fox apparently plays a main role in the film, but that is just a rumor and not necessarily confirmed.

Last but not least, our friends at Film School Rejects got a tip that The Blob will appear in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as well. In an interview with Hugh Jackman that came with the first photo from Wolverine, he confirmed that we will see "a good [amount] of cameos" of new and familiar mutants from the X-Men universe. Apparently one of those is The Blob, aka as Fred J. Dukes, a 510 lb. monstrosity that, beyond immense strength and durability, could "create a mono-directional gravity field extending five feet from his center of balance, rendering himself virtually immovable as long as he was in contact with the ground." He was even so fat that his body "could absorb the impact of bullets, cannonballs, and even missiles."

The report goes on to say that test footage of The Blob has already been shot and that they've been using a rubber suit (think Norbit, sadly) instead of creating the character with CGI. On top of that, they're apparently trying to make him even bigger - in the test footage he was initially portrayed as weighing 800 lbs., but the producers want to make him 1200 lbs instead. I'm certain this isn't the last time we'll hear of one of the cameo characters that will be making an appearance. From the sounds of it and what I've heard about the script, there will be quite a few random cameos. Rumors I've heard include Gambit, the teleporter John Wraith, and others from Team X.

Whether or not all of this news is true, X-Men Origins: Wolverine sounds like its really coming together well. There's a lot going into it, including some fine actors like Liev Schreiber and Hugh Jackman, and some interesting cameos, like The Blob. Stay tuned for more updates on Wolverine as we hear them!